GREED AND FEAR.

No one is responsible for the Corona Virus. It just happened. People are fearful and hopefully, as I, and others face Isolation things will improve. For the first time since I've been diagnosed with cancer, my Doctor asked me to skip a treatment and stay home. Part of the reason is that I'm doing well and I'm at great risk to have blood work and an infusion at my age with a serious disease.

My grandson,  Stewart and his fiance, Allie,  returned from Europe three days ago. They were immediately quarantined. I asked them what they were doing and they told me they were working jigsaw puzzles and eating a lot of popcorn. Allie is a nurse and Stewart is a tech writer, so he can work from home as long as his services are needed. And Allie will soon be needed with her skills.

My daughter bought me a lot of groceries so I could last a month without going to a grocery store. I'm at risk because of age and disease. I'm being very careful. But, I went to the post office. That is not very careful. I was out for therapy and I convinced myself it was all right. NOT! No one in the post office, not the customers or the workers wore masks or seemed at all concerned. I immediately came home and washed, washed, washed. I shouldn't have gone there.

My son Doug walked in his ankle boot cast to his local grocery and found the shelves quite empty. He has a turkey in his freezer, and was looking to buy some potatoes to go with the turkey. He said, "I can live for a week or more on a turkey. He called me from the market and I suggested he get stuffing mix to go with his turkey, or boxed potato flakes. All gone!  Looking at the emptiness he asked a checker whey the shelves were so bare. She told him that a group of men, swooped in and took everything. She found out they were hoping to sell the stuff on the black market when things get desperate. That is criminal greed.

I was stunned. Doug was too. However, the store had a sign up front that said no returns would be granted on receipts for purchases from March 17th forward. According to her, that put a stop to it. .

Now, let's talk about fear. This happened in a Save Mart, earlier, where Doug went to buy some hamburger and the butcher told him they were out at the moment but he was getting a side of beef in and to come back in about two hours and he'd have some meat in the case.
He returned and a man and his wife took all of the meat the butcher had cut and wrapped and put in the case. The butcher asked the guy to take a package or two. Allow someone else to have a some meat. The guy defiantly went to the check stand. The checker asked him to put some of it back and only take two packages. He growled at her, "Check me out!"
 And she did. I consider that greed and fear.

 I don't know if that Save Mart made it a policy, by posting a  sign, requiring patrons to limit their purchases to what they need immediately.  Doug's truck broke down and he cannot drive anymore and must hobble in his cast to the local market with the empty shelves. Maybe, deliveries will continue and the shelves will have more than bare spaces.

I hope we have leadership in Washington that can get help for everyone very soon. After all this isn't a political issue, it is a health issue and we should all be working together to keep the Corona Virus from spreading. I'm so grateful that I have stupendous neighbors who call and check on me and ask if I need anything. I'm grateful that I don't need anything but resolve.

May we all get through this with a minimum of disease among our friends and families. This pandemic is like nothing we have ever faced as a nation before. It is financially troubling especially for people like young waiters and waitresses who depend on tips to make ends meet and suddenly are unemployed with nothing coming in. And, who will gather the homeless and find treatment and testing for them who can continue to spread the virus without check?

Isolation, though not permanent, can surely slow the spread of this deadly disease. I pledge.

AN IRISH BLESSING.

It is St. Patricks Day today and I recently learned that using the term Paddy is a derogative term. So I shan't go there.
My mother was French and my father was Irish, English, Belgian, Scotch and a wee bit of this and that. My mother wryly commented, "You can be a Heintz 57, but if there is a little bit of Irish in you,  you consider yourself Irish."  And so it was with my father. He drank heavy as a young man and to save his marriage he became a teetotaler.  Once in a while, he'd sip a little and he'd sing us those Irish ballads he remembered from his youth. Sad and soulful, Oh Danny Boy, would have we kids in tears. As his tongue got thick, the accent got thicker and the songs much more fun. This one comes to mind:

Oh, lady would you be kind enough to give me a bite to eat,
A slice of bread and butter with a ten foot slice of meat,
A piece of pie and custard would tickle me appetite
For really I am so hungry I don't know where I'll sleep tonight.

Chorus:
Hallelujah, I'm a bum,
Hallelujah, bum again,
Hallelujah, give us a handout to revive us again.

The Little Rock Candy Mountains, was another favorite.  Ah, I guess I'm awash in memories.

But here then is the Irish Blessing, author unknown.

May there always be
work for your hands to do,

May your purse
always hold a coin or two,

May the sun always shine
on your windowpane,

May a rainbow be certain
to follow the rain. 

May the hand of a friend
always be near you,

May God fill your heart
with gladness to cheer you.

Top o' the mornin' to ya!

WAS VOTING EASIER?

I ask the question, was voting easier?  In a word, NO!  I took directions from the newspaper. Turn on-to Stanislaus Ave. Turn right on Tuolumne Rd. Turn right again and you will see directions to the polling place. Nope. Turned up Stanislaus, dead ended into Cliff Rd. Turned right found Oneida Rd. Rt. again, Tuolumne Rd and signs for the polling place. Whoops, sorry, the polls don't open until 8:00. My protest: I called the County and they said 7:00 a.m. I did not get a mail ballot. They should have mailed one to everyone, I was told.

I went out for breakfast and returned approximately 8:45. The machines weren't working. After 15 minutes or so, the machines cooperated and they found that I was indeed a registered voter. I voted in less then 10 minutes and left. The poll workers were extremely nice and helpful. I'm still miffed that after 44 years in Murphys, there was not one polling place in our fair village.

Sour grapes on my part. I hope it is better organized in November.

MAKING VOTING EASIER?

Most of my news comes from my newspaper. I was under the impression that the powers that be were trying to make voting easier, by having more voting days, meaning more choices. What a shocker when I found out that there is NO PLACE IN MURPHYS to vote. I've lived here for 44 years and there is not place to vote in Murphys? How can that be. Guaranteed, voting will be down from normal with conditions I will list:

I can vote election day in Arnold at the Library. Take note, Arnold is an area with more vacation homes than permanent residents. They are only open election day.  Did I get something in the mail explaining all of these changes?  NO!  Arnold is twenty-five miles from me one way. Drive 50 miles to vote?  Not very practical for most people I know.

Tomorrow, on a Saturday,  I can drive to Angels Camp, only eleven miles from my house to go and vote. Is it in a recognizable hall? NO!  I was told over the phone, go to Stanislaus St until it ends, turn right , then another right on Tuolumne St. and signs will direct you where to go. Again, this is the only day that site will be open. When our voting ability has gotten worse, not better, turnout is sure to be diminished.

I'm really bummed about this and feeling helpless to do anything about it.  A letter to the newspaper may help get people riled up before the general election. Riled up enough to perhaps get some stability in our election process. Democracy depends on our right and our ability to vote.

I'm still stunned that this is so.

NO HOT WATER

Plumbing is for plumbers. A blocked sink that suddenly will not open makes me laugh, but the undrainable sink isn't really funny until I lie on the floor and try to fix it and get the giggles. I don't know who invented rubber gloves, but oh, how I treasure them for plumbing tasks. Living single is challenging. Getting up on a ladder to clean the screen on my wood stove pipe would give me a warmer, less smokey house.Getting on the roof at my age with a bum knee on the right and a bum ankle on the left is something I shouldn't try. If I get desperate enough I will. I'm frigorific and shrammed. (I'm into new vocabulary words.)  Yes, I'm showing off, because I'm fascinated by some of these old English words because they are so useless, or, as the old English say, bootless. I actually started collecting them because I wanted to wow my daughter with words she probably wouldn't know when we play scrabble. As busy as we are that hardly ever happens anymore. Such long words aren't practical anyway.  Loess will work when you have too many esses in your hand. It means windblown soil, like drifted desert deposits. Zolaf is good when you have a hard to use Z with combined with a hard to use  F. It is a tea spout sleeve. Just what everyone needs, but hey, in a scrabble game, it works. These daffynitions come from Merrium Webster. I swear they are real. How about saln, for peace and harmony. Or serac, a cut in the earth. Stupa, a mostly conical structure for storing bones. I have personal knowledge of stupas from my trip to Thailand. Too many N's?  How about nene. A Hawaiian goose. Xerus is a type of giant squirrel. Zeru is a humped bovine. You've heard the word capo. Sounds like a mobster boss instead of a moveable bar on a guitar.
Well, I've had my fun with words. I must heat water on the stove to wash my dishes and hope Monday brings someone agile and talented to my rescue. Ciao.  

ACORNS, WEATHER AND FAD FOOD.

The day before yesterday, I spent a solid two hours blowing acorns off my deck and sidewalks and driveways. Thousands of them. Radio personality, John Tesh, on Intelligence For Your Life, talked about the new fad food making the rounds- acorn meal. He mentioned starving squirrels. I wish he could direct them to my house.
After blowing the acorns I realized they were still there,  thickly clustered around the perimeter of   my driveways, decks and walking areas. Dang!  Dust pan after dust pan load  I dutifully removed and  tossed into tree barren areas. Aha! Problem fixed.
Yesterday we were warned of a huge storm coming in with lots of rain. Ferocious winds blew all day with no sign of rain. Acorns blew down with such force the acorns popped like firecrackers on the hard surfaces. The rains eventually came in a torrent dropping even more of the unwelcome crop of squirrel food. ( I only have two squirrels in my yard.)
I carefully opened the curtains this morning. There were puddles of acorns near the downspouts swirling there with equal numbers of  broken twigs,  dead leaves and in some areas huge dead branches fell in the yard. My decks look like they have acorn chicken pox.
But, on the bright side, it looks like an abstract painting. 

One of these days, soon I hope, I'm going to learn how to put a picture on this blog. My new computer is wonderful but non techies like myself are still on a learning curve. 

BUSY SEASONS GREETINGS.

It's been quite awhile since I've posted on this blog. Everyone has been busy preparing for Christmas; sending cards, mailing packages, singing and listening to Carols and most of all, attending every Christmas Party one can manage.  I love the holidays.
My peculiar condition means, I went to see the play SOME THINGS AFOOT on Friday at the Murphys Creek Theatre with youngest daughter and then set my sights on a "speakeasy", open Mike poetry and readings at The Gallery in Angels Camp. 

Doesn't work that way. I made the play on Friday, but was tooooo tired and exhausted to make it to Open Mike. That's how it goes. One symptom of the medicine I'm taking is profound fatigue.

Christmas kind of tippy-toes up on you and suddenly you realize you're not ready. OMIGOSH. My whole family, all six grandsons, all my kids,  their spouses, a few strays, a couple of brothers hungry for home cooking, an adopted family, a politician, a neighbor or two, a rock hard conservative, some one missing a dog and a bunch of noisy democrats. A recipe for wonders not experienced in a long time at this big shack.

Yesterday friends helped me haul out the decorations and put up lights. I opened ornaments boxes I hadn't seen in a long time. Brushed off the dust and WOW! It's a wonderful day.  Now I get to savor the wait; look forward to all the goodies that will come through the door and enjoy the weather. Predicted cold but clear and sunny through out the holiday. Can't ask for better than that.

On my home page this morning was a marvelous quote from Sophia Loren I'll pass on to you:

"There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you tap this source you will truly have defeated age."

So, what ever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows.

CAN YOU READ THIS?

Can you raed this? Olny 55 people out of 100 can.

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg.  The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae.  The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm.  This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe.  Azanmig huh?  Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!  If you can raed this forwrad it.

thnksnaivg is oevr and I've had athoner ifsnuoin. wahteer is bad. I'm Tarniing my bairn to get rid of my cncear. Hpoe it wroks.

Coia!

Mrya 

WEATHER

Here we are, getting ready for Thanksgiving and the weather prediction has changed twice in two days. First, snow on the 27th and 28 at the 7,000 foot level. Later in the day, a new assessment, snow expected as low as the 5,000 foot level.
Today, my neighbor heard a radio broadcast predicting snow at the 2,000 foot level tomorrow. Since I live at the 2,500 foot level, I scrambled to get my outside chores finished. Blew off the acorns from my deck and driveway and covered a few sensitive plants that don't take well to snow and ice.

While I complain about this turnabout weather, I'm reading all about climate change turning wildfires into megafires.  Monarch butterfly populations plummeting, Rocket fuel in kid's cereal. Lead seeping into the Gila River. Geez, does it never end?  It sounds like we are doomed but the name of the magazine I'm reading is Solutions and the solutions are out there. People working to leverage change on every front. This information comes from the Environmental Defense Fund.

Clean energy job growth is a centerpiece for solving the climate crisis. The fastest clean energy growth is led by four Republican Governors, Nevada, Kansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky and one Democratic Governor, Pennsylvania.  If the feds don't do it our State Leaders are bold and smart enough to step in. Wind and Solar are now the cheapest source of new electricity across two-thirds of the world, according to EDF.

Climate Corps are committed to helping create 20,000 jobs and bring in $25 Billion in investment  and slash unhealthy emissions in Ohio. A report called Powering Ohio brings a new top tier set of grad students trained by EDF, promoting renewable electric vehicles and reaching out to cities and institutions in the U.S, and China to cut energy use and create sustainable supply chains that set strict emissions reduction goals.  Commerce at its safest.

EDF is helping restore 30,000 acres of Monarch butterfly habitat in California's Central Valley. Oregon fisherman, Brad Pettinger is using sensors, analytics and artificial intelligence to track catches to keep our ocean healthy. Beia Spiller uses satellite and health data to calculate the social cost of air pollution.
EDF is working for a program to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta habitats for salmon, water users and wildlife protection.

 EDF has warriors for clean air and water. They have scientists that can measure particulate in the air and provide evidence  that give  depth to City Officials worried about their communities. Land loss in Louisiana has in the past been a tightly guarded secret. Now, they are planting oyster beds that  filter fertilizer run off and help abate storm surges from washing away soil and sand. Places that Jim and I visited are now underwater and were already threatened when we were there. This is a 50 billion 50 year state plan to save lives and coastal fishing and marshes. It would be so much cheaper to not let things like this happen in the first place.

 Shakeila James from EDF's Moms For Clean Air has introduced Community RX that brings black women from the South to fight for their communities. Black children are three times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma. Their mission has been adopted by prominent black pastors and has reached 2000 fighting women. Way to go!  Never underestimate the power of a mad, protective mom.

I was surprised to learn that there are more fires in the Eastern and Southern United States than the West. Those in the West are are bigger and hotter and more destructive. But new forest management plans can help reduce that threat. There is so much more to be done. Texas is a holdout, resisting the evidence of climate change.

Eventually, they will have to come to the table and work with their native populations and their people will find themselves and their homes and land susceptible to the dangers of ignoring climate change.

EXPRESSIONS

Creativity abounds when searching for the right description. Alta Hanks would say:  "The little ones is eatin' up the big ones."  It took me a while to understand she was talking about mosquitoes. Another: "He hopped on that ide'er like a duck on a June bug."  Alta married my husband's father late in life and he saved her from working in the fields, following the crops. She was the best gardener I ever met and she sowed by the moon and the sun. It never made sense to me but bountiful gardens did.

Southerners are known for their homilies and these come from Toni L.P. Kelner, a Murder Mystery Writer.
"He was nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs."
"If she moved any slower, she'd be goin' backwards."
"I ate so much, I'd like to bust a gusset."
"Just between you, me and the gate post..."
"She was plain as a mud fence."
"I've got more time than money."
"You'd think he owned the road, and half the town besides,"
    It took me a minute to understand he was describing a braggart.

The World War II Vets came home with a bunch of expressions.

"Killroy was here."
"Gotta fag?"
'Toss that in the circular file."
 "What's the latest poop?"
 "He went AWOL.
"He is headed for the brig."
"Where's the John in this stinkin' frat house."
"Shut your blow-hole or they'll give you Latrine Duty."

I'm struggling to remember other colorful expressions. I know my friend Howard Hoyt and I one time made a list. I'll have to grab him and we old museum pieces can share old war stories. And, Museums, too.
They will probably pop into my head while I'm sleeping.

Ciao